Why I left Engineering/IT

I didn't leave because it was hard.
I left because it was no longer worth it.

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

My Investment Portfolio (March 2010)

As I was writing this blog entry, I saw an annual report lying in front of me on a stack of them which I haven't gone through yet. Entitled "Great Expectations" from the latest Great Eastern Holdings annual report, it certainly sets me thinking for a while. I mean, everyone have great expectations of their investment portfolio, themselves, the people around them, their colleagues at work etc. But sometimes, we must take a step back to take stock of what we have currently, before demanding great expectations. Because if we set too high an expectation, we might be set for more disappointments. Why am I saying these in this month's portfolio review writeup? Because when markets goes up, many investors have higher expectations of return and demanded more from their investment. In order to do that, they started to take more risk, which actually should be the other way round. Which is why I have been adopting a more defensive approach in my stock investment portfolio recently as I felt that value investing is more safer in the current market.

For my top 30 stock holdings, there are two new entries this month - Sarin Technologies and OSIM International. I had been a long term shareholder in both companies, and their recent price appreciation meant that they are in my top 30 list this month. Despite its setback in recent years, I have remained faithful with OSIM International all these years and I hope that it will pay off eventually.

China Printing & Dyeing Holdings and FerroChina Limited are the new entries in my unlisted companies list. They had been delisted without an exit offer. Diversification saves me again as their allocation in my portfolio is quite insignificant. As they said, "You win some and you lose some".

For this month, I accepted two takeover offers - Hongguo International and China Video. Their proceeds had been re-invested back into my portfolio. I have participated in Pacific Andes, China Fishery and Cambridge scrip dividend scheme. I have also converted my Challenger, Etika and Qian Hu company warrants to shares and participated in Asia Water's NRO.

Next month, there will not be much dividend payout for me to re-invest back to the market. Nevertheless, I will continue to position my portfolio defensively going forward and search for more value mid/small cap stocks to invest.

My S'pore Stock Portfolio - Top Holdings, cash investment only (correct as at 31 March 2010)

13 Comments:

thanks for adding me to your blogroll. anyway, i really have to say that your portfolio is really big... i believe you doing investing full time but that is heck lot of stocks and funds... im sure you are passionate about what you are doing..

I am not a full time investor. I am holding a full time job and investing is just my part-time adventure. :)

I don't time the market or look for entry/exit signals. I remain invested at all times in the market, whether it is bull, bear or range. If I wish to withdraw from my investment, it will be a gradual process and it is based on my investment objective, not based on market conditions or signals.

great to see ur discipline approach towards investing. Anyway, what do u mean that those china stocks went unlisted without an exit offer? Isnt it unfair when they do not pay back your share if they were to unlist? I have never encountered unlisting issues before.

By the way, Apex-pal are planning to change its name to Sakae holdings.

Those companies had been delisted without an exit offer because they are in no position to do so. Most of these companies are in negative equity position position, and they have yet to pay their creditors, let alone paying an exit offer to shareholders.

Of course, they look ok when I bought them, but due to some reasons or another, they are now almost gone. But wait, there is still hope as long as the company is around right? So, let's see how it goes.......

I still haven't received it. I guess I hold too many companies and some of these annual reports might not come in on time. Sometimes, it can be one or two weeks late. The postman will just deliver a big stack personally to my house. :)

I guess most companies offer share option to reward employees. The circular might be the standard one for you to approve the issue of share options. Anyway, it doesn't make much difference if you approved the scheme or not, since you are only holding one lot. But it is a good exercise to go through the document and understand how they are going to implement the scheme.

Your assurance really put me at ease now that I am not required to do anything about it.

Correct me if I am wrong. Share options only benefit the company staff or employees. Share warrants only benefit the shareholders. Both schemes somehow must be exercised and approved by bigger unitholders?

Issue of share options needs to be approved in the AGM. It is a standard item. It will expire on the next AGM and they will come back again if necessary.

Yes, share option needs to be exercised at strike price to convert to shares. Therefore, it is important to look at how much share option they are going to table for shareholders to approve and how much the discount in strike price over the market price they are giving.

About Me

A self-directed investor, looking to invest for retirement needs and bypass all those expensive financial planners/insurance agents. Investing is fun, profitable or most important of all, knowledge gained is useful for the rest of your life!